The Grocer
Overview Given the role of the Grocer, he takes his place behind the counter in a shop heavily stocked with green peas. He adamantly rehearses/is trapped in the role he is given. Eugene Green is an actor who’s given the role of ‘The Grocer’ by the casting agent, Alice Estee. When he’s given the part his face fills with dread. As The Grocer, Eugene consults a script before doing anything. The Grocer wants the people in the town to know that they’re just characters in a film like him. Appearance Often wearing an apron, but can be seen in drag prior to taking the role as The Grocer. Loop - Basic * Eugene closes store (Grocery Store) * Performs at birthday party (Birthday Tent) * Alice orders Eugene to go to the store (Birthday Tent) * Opens store (Grocery Store) * 1:1 (Grocery Store - Back Room)* * Dusts tins of peas (Grocery Store) * Drugstore Girl kisses napkin and gives it to Eugene (Drugstore) * Gives Drugstore Girl back napkin box, with script page underneath (Drugstore) * 1:1 (Grocery Store - Back Room)* * Takes final page of script to drugstore (Drugstore) * Performs it with Drugstore Girl (Drugstore) * Heads back to store and finds his Eugene clothes (Grocery Store) * 1:1 performed several times during loop Loop - Extended The Grocer starts his loop behind the counter at his shop, ‘Honest Abe Kusich Grocery Store’. His display includes a large pyramid of green pea tins and there are boxes of Ariel washing powder on the shelves. He sells old-fashioned cake mixes, fruit and vegetables. He takes off his white apron and turns the sign in the window to ‘CLOSED’. Holding a script, he mumbles a defiant, ‘My name is Eugene Green.’ He leaves his shop and walks through the studio gates, exchanging words with The Gatekeeper. He climbs the stairs and passes a series of bloody handprints on the wall. He walks to Studio 2, the Woodchip Trailer Park, and enters the ‘Mess Tent’ which has been set up for a party. A banner reads, ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOLORES’. He changes into a drag outfit and a black wig. He stuffs his bra, slips on a dress, slides on his shoes and sits down at a table, waiting for the other guests to arrive. He undoes the cork of a champagne bottle and takes a swig. Frankie and Dolores arrive first and Wendy and Marshall turn up shortly afterwards. Eugene is in a red sequined dress like Dolores, and he steps onto a small stage and does an impression of her. He vamps it up and lip-syncs to ‘I Can Never Go Home Anymore’ by The Shangri-La’s. Dolores nudges him out of the way to show him how it’s done. Frankie raises a glass and says, ‘To Dolores – every woman wants to be her, and every man wants to be in her’. While Dolores flirts with Marshall, the others pull Wendy on stage and dress her in the red gown and wig. At first Wendy plays along, but her mood changes as she becomes the butt of everyone’s mockery. Dolores drapes herself over Marshall while they all stare at Wendy, who looks faintly ridiculous. Wendy loses it and throws her champagne over Dolores. They all leave except for Eugene who stays behind. He looks at his script and places it on the table. On the front it says ‘The Drowned Man’ and on the first page is a scene from ‘Woyzeck’. Alice Estee enters the tent and finds Eugene dancing alone. She berates him for being in drag and out of his grocer’s apron. ‘Don’t you want to be The Grocer?’ she asks, ‘Show me how much you want it.’ Nodding and looking beaten, he picks up the script and walks upstairs. He passes through the studio gates and into town, where paradoxically his new role awaits him. He enters the Grocery, flips the shop sign to ‘OPEN’ and puts on his apron. A note on the counter says, ‘Eugene, put on your costume, say your lines, and learn your role! Alice.’ He sits at the counter studying his script, where everything he does is written down. The audience are referred to as the ‘faceless townspeople’. He pulls out a key and unlocks a door behind the counter. He stands looking at the door and slowly holds his hand out behind his back. An audience member grabs it and The Grocer pulls him into the room. 1:1 They sit down and Eugene passes the man a folder with the words ‘READ ME’ scrawled on the front. Inside is a script that describes the last few actions of ‘Honest Abe’, including taking someone by the hand and leading them to a dark room. The script says, ‘Honest Abe leans forward and starts to speak’. The moment the man reads this, The Grocer leans forward and starts whispering. He recites the lines that are written in the script, ‘HONEST ABE - Once upon a time there was a boy who wanted to be a star. He went in search of someone to nurture his dreams. His mother and father died but the boy carried on regardless. Eventually he came to the great gates guarded by horses where a blinding light poured through so bright. He stood watching and stared into the light for many days and many nights until he went blind’. The Grocer describes how the boy, who dreamed of being on the silver screen, one day found himself on the other side of the gates. He was given a script, but soon found himself imprisoned inside it. He was trapped in the role that was written for him and he couldn’t get out. The Grocer says, ‘My name is Eugene and I’m trapped in someone else’s dream.’ He stares at the man and pleads ‘Don’t get trapped’, before pushing him out into the street. Romola stumbles into his shop and asks for directions to Temple Studios. The Grocer says, ‘Temple Studios huh? You’ll be needing this,’ and offers her a pea from a pair of tweezers. She’s confused, but she eats it. Then he offers her a slice of orange. ‘How d’you know I like oranges?’ she asks, and he says that she’s been coming into the shop every day. He says they’ll see each other again soon, and she backs out of the shop. The Barman enters and The Grocer seems nervous. He talks about some of the promotions he has in the shop. The Barman sees a card on the shelf addressed to ‘Eugene Green’. ‘Is that your name – Eugene?’ asks The Barman. ‘No’, he says, ‘I’m Abe.’ He tries to act nonchalant, but The Barman persists. Eugene becomes angry and says, ‘I want you to leave now. Leave.’ The Grocer eats an orange at his counter. He takes big bites out of it and juice dribbles over his hands. He finishes it and walks across town to the diner where he meets Drugstore Girl. He tells her that he’s only just started in town and he’s already made a mess, and he needs to borrow some napkins. Drugstore Girl takes a napkin, folds it delicately and blots it with her lipstick. ‘So you don’t forget to return it’, she says and she tucks it into a napkin holder. Her moves are slow, deliberate and seductive. The Grocer says, ‘Thanks, I’ll give it back soon’ and returns to his shop. He cuts out a piece of the script that’s lying on his counter and places it with the napkin in the napkin holder. The script tells him to polish the rust off a can of peas, which he does atop a stepladder. He sprays cleaner onto his window and writes a message in the mist with his fingertips – ‘E S C A P E’. He picks up a cloth and wipes away the letters. He returns to his desk to read the script and it tells him to look at the faceless townspeople. He beckons one over, takes them into the back room and slams the door. He heads over to the diner again, taking his script, and he sits at a table with Drugstore Girl. They follow their lines and dance together. The script tells her to answer the phone and she walks over to one of the booths along the side of the diner. She listens to the call for a short while and suddenly collapses. She lies motionless on the floor and The Grocer stands over her. He’s excited by this latest development and he looks at the script in awe. He bends down to pick her up, cradles her in is arms and carries her to a chair. He leaves her lifeless body slumped against a table and returns to his shop. At the end of his final loop, The Grocer picks up a rose from under his counter and goes to the diner. He shows Drugstore Girl a page from the script and warns her not to answer the phone, but to follow him instead. The two of them each take hold of an audience member and lead them downstairs. Final Show Trivia In the script he’s referred to as ‘Honest Abe’, a reference to the character ‘Abe Kusich’ from ‘The Day of the Locust’. Eugène Green is the name of a French filmmaker and dramatist, born in 1947, who trains actors using the French baroque theatre technique. Like several of the characters in the show, The Grocer is aware that he’s playing a role. The technique used in fictional works whereby characters display an awareness that they are in such a work is known as ‘Metareference’. The Drowned Man is ‘meta-referential’ in that it portrays a play within a play, sometimes also referred to as ‘mise en abyme’. In Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’, Jacques states the famous line, ‘All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.’ The notion of people going through their lives as nothing more than dramatic actors is a common theatrical theme. Georg Buchner explores the notion of human identity and multiple personalities in his play ‘Leonce and Lena’. One of the characters ‘Valerio’ claims that people are merely a collection of artificial self-constructions, with no underlying ‘true self’. Near the end of the play, Valerio enters a stateroom wearing several masks. Leonce’s father, King Peter, asks him who he is and he responds ‘I’m not sure I know. Am I this? Or this? Or this? What a frightening thought: if I keep on removing layer after layer, I might peel myself entirely away’. Büchner suggests that people are made up of many ‘masks’ which they use to fit into certain roles and handle a certain aspect of life in the best possible way. In ‘Leonce and Lena’, he portrays everybody as automaton-like. The general populace, for instance, is compared to a batch of puppets, while the tutor and privy council are only capable of agreeing with whatever they are told, like robots built to give positive feedback. Büchner suggests that humans are in essence artificial entities, being self-composed of a myriad of artificially constructed personalities and identities. Quotes * "My name is Eugene Green, and I'm trapped in somebody else's dream" - from The Grocer's 1:1 * "Do I look like a grocer to you?" References Image credit: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/420945896393824129/Category:Characters